Employee discovers loophole within company half-day policy, allowing him to work for only one hour every Friday: 'Half days revolve around lunch times'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Feb 14, 2025 4:00 PM EST

Sometimes, the only way to prove that a company policy is flawed is to find the loophole and use it to your advantage at all costs.

Now, the subject of half-days is one that comes up a lot for employees who have a conflict or want to take that time off for whatever reason they see fit. The big question is when does the half-day actually start? In this instance, half-days revolved around lunchtime, but this one employee worked alternative hours. However, when he brought this up to his boss, his request to have his half-day hours to be adjusted accordingly was rejected…

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  • 01
    "Half Days Entirely Depend on the Set Lunch Time? Alright Then!"
    via Marten Bjork

  • This employee asked years ago to begin his work day at 7:00 AM and to end his day at 3:00 PM because it was better for his job responsibilities and for his own well-being. This request was accepted and everything had been smooth-sailing. That is, it was all working out until the employee requested to take a half-day, starting at 11:00 AM (since that was four hours into his eight-hour day). 

    His boss rejected the request and reinforced that any and all half-days can only start at the official company lunch time (1:00 PM - 2:00 PM). That's when the employee got to thinking about how he could use this ridiculous rule to his advantage…

  • 02
    My friend used to work in finance for a company which generally treated him pretty poorly. He was paid far less than he knew the company could afford, and was generally overlooked. They had home working for a while because of and then were allowed to come back to the office 3 days a week,
    via PigeonLass
  • 03
    working from home 2 days. Whilst working from home, my friend loved missing the commute. Being an early riser anyway, he decided to ask his boss if he would be allowed to start work at 7am and finish at 3pm so as to get to and from work quicker, and because the office was open at that time anyway.
    via PigeonLass
  • 04
    This was okayed, and so he started to work 7am-3pm, which he then extended to his work from home days. as he enjoyed having his late afternoons free.
    via PigeonLass
  • 05
    Now, so that everyone was available at the same time, lunch time at the company was set at 1-2pm, no leeway. One Friday my friend wanted a half day to begin the start of a long weekend.
    via PigeonLass
  • 06
    Because he would usually finish work at 3pm, he asked if half day for him could be earlier around 11am - since he would be putting in more hours before lunch than anyone else.
    via PigeonLass
  • 07
    "No," he was told, "half day means finishing at lunch." So he had to work from 7am-1pm (6 hours) despite it counting, holiday-wise, as a half day. This annoyed him for obvious reasons, until he found a great benefit to this.
    via PigeonLass
  • 08
    Cheezburger Image 10467441664
    via Hunters Race

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 09
    Working from home on Fridays, he started booking mornings off work, meaning he didn't have to work until 2pm. Then he worked for one hour from home and that was it. His colleagues thought it was genius. His
    via PigeonLass
  • 10
    boss had very firmly told him that half days revolve around lunch times, so couldn't do anything about it! So my friend enjoyed a few months of practically doing no work on several Fridays for the cost of a half day at a time, until eventually he left the business and moved on to a job where he was treated a lot better!
    via PigeonLass
  • 11
    zEdgarHoover . Still trying to get my head around fixed lunch hour "so everyone is available at the same time" in a company where WFH exists. I mean, in manufacturing, maybe, but this isn't that. That's so stupid it can only be a "leadership" decision.
    via PigeonLass

  • One cannot help but commend this guy for pulling off this scheme while lining up a better job opportunity so that when he would inevitably be “found out,” he could just quit and move on to bigger and better work environments. Several members of the online community praised him for his cleverness as well. Here's what they had to say about it all!

  • 12
    Cow Launcher. I can visualise the cogs whirring in the boss' head, as he tries to work out how he can have it both ways.
    via PigeonLass
  • 13
    nalanajo Brilliant, and awesome.
    via PigeonLass
  • 14
    CoderJoe1. A classic case of the halvsies and the have-nots.
    via PigeonLass
  • 15
    purgruv. MC to the letter!
    via PigeonLass
  • 16
    RemLazar911 Is the PTO not hourly anyway? Wouldn't you still be using 6 hours of PTO to take the morning off?
    via PigeonLass
  • 17
    Hello Joey Joe Joe. I need a job when I can take multiple hours off every week and not have it affect my performance.
    via PigeonLass
  • 18
    EarlyGoose9284 Isn't the "lunch break" effectively a legally mandated break in the middle of a shift? It is in the UK, I am not allowed to work (from memory) more than 4 hours without a break
    via PigeonLass
  • 19
    KTB1962. So between 1:00 and 2:00 there's absolutely no one working at that time?? That's not productive...
    via PigeonLass
  • 20
    FoolishStone. Some offices, especially medical practices, close for lunch, which means everyone needs to take the same lunchtime. This helps avoid a situation where, say, a nurse has to cover for someone at their regular lunchtime, and end up getting no break at all.
    via PigeonLass

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